Graduation Protocol

[disneygirl 17]

I need some opinions on Graduation announcements and invitations. My sister will be graduating high school this year. I am planning the party and helping my Mom with announcements.

Do you send announcements to everyone even people who are getting invited to the party?

Also when do you send them. I am thinking about 4 weeks in advance so we can have an estimated number of guests that can RSVP.

Any advice would be helpful - she is 14 years younger than me so it has been awhile since we have done this.

 

[daughtersrus]

I need some opinions on Graduation announcements and invitations. My sister will be graduating high school this year. I am planning the party and helping my Mom with announcements.

Do you send announcements to everyone even people who are getting invited to the party?

Also when do you send them. I am thinking about 4 weeks in advance so we can have an estimated number of guests that can RSVP.

Any advice would be helpful - she is 14 years younger than me so it has been awhile since we have done this.

We never sent announcements only invitations to those that we wanted to celebrate with us. To me, it's tacky to send an announcement. It's like saying "K___ graduated. Please send a gift even though you're not invited to the party". I feel the same was about wedding announcements that are sent to people not invited to the wedding or reception.

I know that people will disagree with me so I'll get my flame suit ready.

 

[disneygirl 17]

People actually send announcements for weddings and not invite people to the wedding/reception. That is rude!! I think.

We only have a handful of people who live out of town...and I wasn't sure how to handle them. Maybe I will just send them an invite to the party and be done with it.

Thanks for your advice

 

[daughtersrus]

We only have a handful of people who live out of town...and I wasn't sure how to handle them. Maybe I will just send them an invite to the party and be done with it.

Thanks for your advice

That's what we did. We were very happy that some were able to attend the party. We really did want them to celebrate with us!

 

[barkley]

you might want to send them out sooner vs. later-that gives your sister a better chance of attendees to a party if people get multiple invites for the same time period (one year we had 2 h/s graduations, an 8th grade graduation, and 3 college graduations within our circle of family and friends-all for the same 2 weekends. it came down to which ones we were invited to first).

in sending any kind of invite or announcement-please try to make it clear to the recipient as to weather they are invited to the ACTUAL graduation. it can be realy confusing, and with some schools that limit the number of tickets a grad can give to the ceremony it's better to be clear from the start vs. having hurt feelings among guests who may have made planned to attend.

 

[Christine]

Send announcements out 6 weeks in advance.

My DD sent her announcements out to the entire family. There were no limits to how many could attend her graduation so, effectively, they were invites (and not gift grabs) and we would have been happy to have everyone show up.

 

[cats mom]

Personally I wouldn't have any problem receiving a graduation announcement that was not an invitation to something.

I know many schools have attendance limitations at ceremonies, and not everyone throws a big graduation party.

But it's still an accomplishment worth announcing to family and friends, yes?

Of course if said announcement included a blurb about where the graduate was registered for gifts, I'd feel differently.
But I don't see graduation announcements as an automatic money grub. JMHO

in sending any kind of invite or announcement-please try to make it clear to the recipient as to weather they are invited to the ACTUAL graduation. it can be realy confusing, and with some schools that limit the number of tickets a grad can give to the ceremony it's better to be clear from the start vs. having hurt feelings among guests who may have made planned to attend.

Yep, and often the standard announcement offered through the school does a very poor job of this.

When DD graduated each student was allowed only 4 tickets to the graduation ceremony. Anyone who wanted more had to submit a request to a lottery system for extras. Yet if you bought the announcement package through the school, you would never know you were not actually invited to the ceremony. Crazy.

 

[pigletgirl]

We sent out my invitations separate from the graduation announcement. It worked well for us.

 

[MrsPete]

Do you send announcements to everyone even people who are getting invited to the party?

So you're "announcing to" a large number of people, but only inviting a small number to the party?

Personally, I wouldn't do that. If the person is important enough to "announce", then the person is important enough to invite to the party. It does seem as if you're saying, "We want your gift, but we're not inviting you to the party".

We only have a handful of people who live out of town...and I wasn't sure how to handle them. Maybe I will just send them an invite to the party and be done with it.

Be gracious and invite them. Let the decision be theirs.

Send announcements out 6 weeks in advance.

You send INVITATIONS out weeks in advance. If it's just an ANNOUNCEMENT -- meaning that you want to inform the person, but you don't actually want him to come -- you send it the day of the event.

 

[disneygirl 17]

So you're "announcing to" a large number of people, but only inviting a small number to the party?

Personally, I wouldn't do that. If the person is important enough to "announce", then the person is important enough to invite to the party. It does seem as if you're saying, "We want your gift, but we're not inviting you to the party".Be gracious and invite them. Let the decision be theirs.You send INVITATIONS out weeks in advance. If it's just an ANNOUNCEMENT -- meaning that you want to inform the person, but you don't actually want him to come -- you send it the day of the event.

We have 4 family members (distant family members) across the country so we weren't going to send them party invites because we know they can't come....but we still wanted to announce the graduation. These are family members who we have sent graduation gifts for in the past but have only seen maybe 3 times in our whole lives but they are family. Anyone who is local or has the possiblity of coming to the party will be invited. The more the better...I just didn't know if we should send party invites and annoucements both to the same people. We can't include the invitations in the announcement because we are doing an island themed party and invitations are a message in a bottle. So the invitation is in a bottle.

 

[MrsPete]

We have 4 family members (distant family members) across the country so we weren't going to send them party invites because we know they can't come....but we still wanted to announce the graduation. These are family members who we have sent graduation gifts for in the past but have only seen maybe 3 times in our whole lives but they are family. Anyone who is local or has the possiblity of coming to the party will be invited. The more the better...I just didn't know if we should send party invites and annoucements both to the same people. We can't include the invitations in the announcement because we are doing an island themed party and invitations are a message in a bottle. So the invitation is in a bottle.

Ah, that's a little different. I mistakenly thought you were sending out 100s of invitations (some people do that, mostly hoping for gifts), but were only inviting a few select people to the party.

Far-away relatives are a different story. You can't leave them out, but you also don't really expect them to make the trip. I'd send the announcements along with a hand-written note saying something like: "It's times like this that I wish we didn't live four states apart! Please remember him on the 10th as he walks across that stage." That fully acknowledges that you don't actually expect them to make a long, expensive trip for his graduation; rather, you wanted them to share in your family's happiness. I always like it when people include a senior picture or a graduation picture too -- especially for relatives that you don't see often.

For locals, yes, I'd send both invitations to the party and the graduation. Even if they're held on the same day, they are separate events.

 

[PirateSnowmen]

Ah, that's a little different. I mistakenly thought you were sending out 100s of invitations (some people do that, mostly hoping for gifts), but were only inviting a few select people to the party.

Far-away relatives are a different story. You can't leave them out, but you also don't really expect them to make the trip. I'd send the announcements along with a hand-written note saying something like: "It's times like this that I wish we didn't live four states apart! Please remember him on the 10th as he walks across that stage." That fully acknowledges that you don't actually expect them to make a long, expensive trip for his graduation; rather, you wanted them to share in your family's happiness. I always like it when people include a senior picture or a graduation picture too -- especially for relatives that you don't see often.

For locals, yes, I'd send both invitations to the party and the graduation. Even if they're held on the same day, they are separate events.

I graduated HS last year and that's pretty much what I did. We had a limited amount of tickets for the actual graduation and I didn't have a party. We don't have any family local - closest is about 5 hours away. We only sent about 20 announcements - all to family. Most of that family hadn't heard from me or seen me since I was about 10. I got many letters back saying "Thanks for letting us know! We can't make the graduation, but it's nice to hear from you. We still thought you were only about 13" . I didn't expect any of them to come to the graduation, but it was nice to at least let them know where I was in life. Some acknowledged the announcement and congratulated me, and some didn't (that's a whole different story). I was never expecting gifts or anything - it was simply just an announcement.

 

[disneygirl 17]

Thank you for your help - I think I will send the announcements to those far away - with a nice note and a picture (which we were planning on - I agree it is a nice touch).

I will then send both to local family etc.

 

[aprilgail2]

People actually send announcements for weddings and not invite people to the wedding/reception. That is rude!! I think.

That is the same as sending a graduation announcement and not being invited to a party- yet just another tacky gift grab!

 

[aprilgail2]

I graduated HS last year and that's pretty much what I did. We had a limited amount of tickets for the actual graduation and I didn't have a party..

We get TWO tickets to the graduation- usually causes issues with divorced parents- the moms seem to think that the step father should get the ticket and not the father--ends up with lots of calls being made to the school which can't do anything about it....people calling upset because grandma or Johnnys brother can't come. Big headache every year!

 

[golfgal]

Around here it is normal to send an announcement for graduations. The announcement is a combination announcement/invite. Everyone has an open house style party so there really isn't a limit on invites. Families get limited numbers of tickets to the actual graduation, 3 at our school, unless the weather is very nice and they can hold it outside, then you get more.

 

[Christine]

So you're "announcing to" a large number of people, but only inviting a small number to the party?

Personally, I wouldn't do that. If the person is important enough to "announce", then the person is important enough to invite to the party. It does seem as if you're saying, "We want your gift, but we're not inviting you to the party".Be gracious and invite them. Let the decision be theirs.You send INVITATIONS out weeks in advance. If it's just an ANNOUNCEMENT -- meaning that you want to inform the person, but you don't actually want him to come -- you send it the day of the event.

Our invites are combo invites/announcements. Standard protocol for these things (at least in this area is 6 weeks prior to the event).

 

[WDWMom]

My DD just graduated last year. We made our own invites to the grad party and mailed them to everyone we wanted at her party. I did buy the announcements and sent them only to grandparents and aunts and uncle with the invite.

No announcements to those who were out of town and wouldn't come to her party. Like others said, it's like trolling for a gift.